Fedora DEI Team Meeting (2025-11-13): GitLab-to-Forgejo Migration and New Contributor Pathways

Project Discussion
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Hello everyone! Here is a summary of the Fedora Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Team meeting from Thursday, November 13, 2025. The Fedora DEI Team works to create a welcoming and inclusive community for all Fedora contributors.

Note: AI (Google Gemini) was used to summarize the HTML log of the public meeting. I reviewed and corrected the AI-generated output before posting.

Topics Discussed

  • Team announcements, including the F43 Release Party, FESCo nominations, and Flock 2026.
    • Updates from regional events, like the recent “Fedora at Kirinyaga” workshop.
  • Planning for the team’s migration from GitLab to Fedora Forge (Forgejo).
  • A detailed discussion on improving the new contributor onboarding experience.

Team Announcements & News

  • Fedora Linux 43 Release Party: Join the virtual event on Friday, November 21, 2025! RSVP here.

  • FESCo Nominations: Nominations for the F43 FESCo election cycle are open until Wednesday, November 26. Read the announcement.

  • FOSDEM 2026: Planning and collaboration for the Fedora presence at FOSDEM 2026 is underway. Join the discussion.

  • Flock to Fedora 2026: Flock, Fedora’s contributor conference, is heading to Prague from June 14-16, 2026! Learn more here.

  • Regional Workshop Success: @lochipi reported on a successful “Fedora at Kirinyaga” workshop, which brought in 30 attendees. A Fedora Magazine article about the event is in progress.

DEI Advisor & Past Action Items

No updates were shared from the Fedora Council, and there were no pending action items from the previous meeting.

Ticket #61: Planning the GitLab to Forgejo Migration

The team’s primary discussion focused on the upcoming migration from GitLab to Fedora Forge (Forgejo). While the team is waiting for an infrastructure ticket to be processed, they began planning the work involved.

@jonatoni and @lochipi graciously volunteered to co-lead this migration effort.

The team brainstormed several tasks that will need to be addressed as part of the migration:

  • Running the migration scripts to move repositories.
  • Reviewing and setting up milestones (and determining if they work across an organization or are per-repo).
  • Evaluating existing issue labels and determining equivalents for GitLab’s “scoped labels.”
  • Verifying FAS group permissions to ensure team members can work effectively.
  • Migrating the Fedora Docs publishing pipeline.
  • Migrating issue templates.
  • Coordinating with associated subgroups, like the Accessibility (A11y) WG and Fedora Pride, about migrating their repositories.
  • Planning for the Fedora Mentor Summit 2026, which is organized under the DEI Team.

Ticket #45: New Contributor Onboarding & Regional Communities

Following the report of new contributors joining from the Kirinyaga workshop, the team held a long-form strategy discussion about improving the onboarding experience.

This discussion was framed by a recent forum post: After joining Fedora Project as a new contributor, what comes next?

Key points from the discussion

  • The Problem: New contributors often “disappear” quickly. They show up eager to help but get lost trying to find a first task or get ignored because maintainers are too busy.

  • The Challenge: Fedora maintainers are spread very thin, often maintaining multiple projects. They may lack the time or “people skills” to provide the focused attention newcomers need.

  • A Proposed Path Forward: Instead of just pointing newcomers to “easyfix” bugs, the team discussed identifying 2-3 specific “newcomer-friendly” projects. These projects should have:

    1. Engaged Maintainers: Project leads who are actively ready and willing to mentor.

    2. Visible Impact: Work that is validating for a new contributor (e.g., seeing their change on a public website).

  • Potential Projects: Fedora Badges and the Fedora Docs UI theme were suggested as good candidates that could provide visible, impactful work. @t0xic0der confirmed that Fedora Badges (#badges:fedoraproject.org) is eager for new help.

  • DEI Team’s Role: The DEI team can act as a bridge, helping project maintainers develop the “people side” of maintenance and create a more welcoming structure for newcomers.

Action Items

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